L.A. PARKER: The N-word is not to be thrown around lightly

Business entrepreneur Paula Deen received major criticism for her admission of using the N-word, but I used the racial epithet Saturday at Mercer County’s Freedom Festival.

Prior to that, I could not tell you when that word, that despicable word, fell out of my mouth. I hate the word. In fact, my black friends catch significant rebuffs when they include that word in our conversations.

White friends never use it.

Before this moves toward how it came about that that word found its way into the June summer sky, maybe we should discuss Ms. Deen.

Her appearance on the Today show with Matt Lauer seemed like a lot of fuss about almost nothing. Fourteen minutes of apologizing, crying and cross examination.

Advertisement

Ms. Deen used a word that thousands if not millions of black people use every day. Black youth have turned that word into a kind of user friendly greeting, a salutation that disconnects from its deplorable past.

That word that. That word this. That word please.

Lauer grilled Deen like a rack of baby back ribs, unleashed a filibuster that inquired how many times she used the word. I wanted Deen to fire back and quiz Lauer whether he used that word, or whether his friends used that word, or if he had ever stood silent while a business associate or girlfriend used that word in a joke, or maybe as a putdown.

This country has young black men dying faster than July, but Lauer has all this time to beat up Deen, not because his station represents some paragonic virtue. Lauer ran his mouth for ratings.

The Today show should talk about black genocide but Lauer knows that his viewers will turn their channels. Minimal interest exists about the effects of generational poverty. That ain’t news, that’s reality.

Paula Deen’s admission that she planned a “really Southern plantation” wedding for her brother on the other hand? Cha-ching. Cha-ching.

Deen intended to hire an all-black staff who would pretend to be slaves.

Yeah, pretty stupid stuff. Paula Deen blubbered so much that I thought we had backtracked to a television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart confession.

She admitted every misstep but left out Swaggart’s “I have sinned.”

Deen requested that anyone who had never said that word should take a brick or rock or boulder and hit her in the head.

I wished for a rock to hurl at Deen, Lauer and the flatscreen.

OK, Paula, you used that word. Go make potato salad, hush puppies and smoked turkey thighs while reciting the Lord’s prayer.

Companies like Home Shopping Network dropped Ms. Deen based on a fear that their customers might take their money and run,

If we witchhunt that word, then perhaps that should be a line of questiong before job interviews, marriage proposals, securing a seat at the captain’s table.

Ask President Bill Clinton, weatherman Al Roker, NBA sports commentator Charles Barkley, Senator John McCain. Let use of that word mean everything, no matter how much time has transpired since that word came out.

By the way, KMart, Walgreens and Sears plan to phase out Paula Deen products. Companies are putting distance between Ms. Deen, even though their CEOs, or COOs likely hold memberships at golf country clubs that discriminate against minorities and women. Go figure.

More concern here after an altercation with a Caucasian guy who left his car Saturday after we exchanged words.

As usual, Mercer County delivered a fantastic Freedom Festival event, plus, a fireworks show that jumpstarted America’s Fourth of July celebration.

In the past, I usually parked inside the park which meant an hour or more of waiting time once the fireworks show ended. This year, I parked outside the park then walked in to a ranger’s station.

My departure allowed me to walk faster than many of the cars that crawled toward an exit. Anyway, nut shells started landing near my feet. No big deal, Eventually, though, it seemed as if the shell man had picked me out as a target.

“Throw another shell at me and let’s see what happens,” started our verbal fight.

The dude stopped his car in mid-traffic and jumped out.

“What did you say, mother (expletive),” he said.

More words before he went back to his car.

“You (expletive) (that word),” he screamed.

Laughter followed because that word rarely raises my blood pressure.

He said it a second time.

Finally, he heard me say that his mother is that word. Technically, not exactly the usual context for that word.

Man, I had done so well up to that point. No curse words. No that word.